Alice and Hugh the Relentless both have claims to a certain green stone, but neither actually has it, as it has been stolen from both of them. Alice believes she knows where it is, and makes a deal with Hugh to help him find it, and in return he will pay for her brother's education in France and giver her money to enter a convent and study. However, Hugh wants a wife, so he tells Alice he needs a temporary betrothal that he will later break, but in truth is counting on keeping Alice.
I can certainly see why, because Alice was inteligent, witty, and chanllenging. Hugh was an equally likeable character who was a good strategist, caring, loveable, kind, and of course, relentless. They were the perfect pair in marriage and partners in solving the mystery of the green stone.
This was an interesting change from Quick, who does not normally write medievals, but it was just as enjoyable as the rest of her books. If you like this one, I recommend With This Ring and Dangerous, or any other Quick book. They are all excellent. Happy Reading!
The one of two medievals (Desire being the other) from the talented Ms. Krentz/Quick. With her usual charm and wit, she creates lovable, endearing characters and as with all Quick/Krentz novels, the emphasis is on fun and hi-jinx and romance.
This time Lady Alice joins forces with Sir Hugh the Relentless,on a hunt for a long lost stone, which could cost them their lives. The tale is so endearing! Lady Alice will Capture your heart!!
When Lady Alice plucks up her nerve and approaches Hugh the Relentless, is its a dark and stormy night (lol). He is black haired, with amber eyes (with JAK you get amber, green or grey!). The first impression, he is every bit the fearsome warrior of his reputation, but to Lady Alice he is her knight in shining armour. She thinks she can control this man, after all she has been driving away fortune-seeking suitors for years, along with managing her interfering family.
Lady Alice has deliberately lured him to this man with the promise of a green crystal belong to him. But Lady Alice is using it as a bargaining chips (also she does not have it!!). She is hoping to find it, and her dowry to free herself and her brother from her uncle's clutches. Hugh agrees to her terms, only, he has terms of his own: that Lady Alice must agree to a temporary betrothal and spend the winter in Hugh's great stone fortress, Scarcliffe Keep.
The adventure begins, but Sir Hugh's lifelong enemy is plotting against them.
One of the few authors I keep in hardback and there is a reason for it!!
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What the books about:
This book is about a Line, a Dot, and a Sqiggle. It shows you how the three relate, and differnt things you can do with them mathmatically, throgh the medium of a classic love story.
Its a wonderful book and i suggest you read it, even if your not in a math class. I also hear there is a short cartoon bassed off of it.
FOR LOVE AND GRACE is a well-written novel that has romance and a hint of mystery, while keeping a Christian perspective. The characters Gregory and Grace seemed a little too "perfect" and their budding romance seemed like something out of a fairy tale. Derrick's character shows how grief and guilt can change a person, but in the end it is God's grace that eases suffering and pain. Through Sherry's character, we learn the power of prayer and that patience is indeed a virtue. This novel exemplifies the blessings that can be received when one has faith in God. Kendra Norman-Bellamy has done a wonderful job with her debut novel. ...
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Unlike many other religions, Judaism is primarily a religion of action and not beliefs. Although certain basic beliefs do exist, much in Judaism remains open to personal interpretation. Judaism does not demand that other people convert; in fact rabbis are encouraged to make at least three vigorous attempts at discouraging the possible convert. Conversion is, nevertheless, possible, and it is important to remember that Abraham was a convert, as was Ruth, a descendant of King David.
In To Be a Jew, Rabbi Donin gives an overview of the history of Judaism and tells us that it was Maimonides who explained that any human being who faithfully observes the Seven Laws of Noah earns a proper place in heaven, no matter what religion he follows. Additionally, The Torah of Moses is a truth for all humanity, whether Jewish or not. Therefore, if one is not prepared to embrace the Jewish religion fully, it would be far better for him to remain outside this beautiful faith.
The Holy Temple, as well, did not benefit Jews only. When King Solomon built the Temple, he specifically asked the Creator to heed the prayers of the gentiles who came to the Temple to pray (Kings I 8:41-43). The Jewish prophet refers to the Temple as a "House for all nations," (Isaiah 56:7). The Temple was the universal center of spirituality, a concentrated point where the consciousness of our Maker filtered down into the world.
We also learn that in ancient times, the service in the Holy Temple during the week of Sukkos featured a total of seventy bull offerings. This, the Talmud explains, corresponded to each of the seventy nations of the world. In fact, the Talmud says, had the Romans only realized how much benefit, they, themselves, were deriving from the Temple, they never would have destroyed it.
Although Judaism certainly does not consider conversion a necessity, what about those who, like me, do find that Orthodox Judaism is the only way to fulfill their own spiritual needs? As we learn in this book, the Code of Jewish Law (the Shulchan Aruch), prescribes three requirements for a valid conversion. Those three requirements are: (1) Mitzvahs. The convert must believe in one Creator and in the divinity of the Torah, as well as personally observe all 613 mitzvahs (commandments) of the Torah; (2) Milah. Male converts must undergo circumcision by a qualified Mohel or a ritual known as hatafas dam; (3) Mikveh. All converts must immerse in the Mikveh, a ritual bath linked to a reservoir of rain water. This must all be done before a court of three Jewish men who themselves are true believers, who accept the divinity of the Torah and observe the mitzvahs.
Conversion, as Donin tells us, must be motivated out of pure love and spiritual desire and not done for the worldly purpose of furthering business or marriage, for example.
Those who are simply interested in the Jewish liturgy or the everyday life of an Orthodox Jew will find this book very interesting, even fascinating, reading. But those who, like me, have made the firm and irrevocable decision to convert, will find the book invaluable.
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The next morning, it's another one's turn. One by one they die, according to the verses of the nursery rhyme Ten Little Niggers, and one by one the ten little negroid statuettes displayed in the dining room disappear. After a thourough but infructuous search of the island, they're forced to face the music: the murderer must be one of them.
It was the third time I read this book, albeit the first in its original language. And even though I was bound to find it a little less suspenseful, it was nice to see the tension build up as the guests all start to suspect each other, and it was much entertaining. Lady Agatha Christie sure knew how to write them detective stories!
(...)
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The chief character, Milo, has a serious case of ennui at a young age. He sees little point in doing or experiencing anything. One day, a mysterious tollbooth materializes before him, and through it Milo is transported into Dictionopolis, a world so weird that it makes Oz seem truly as normal as Kansas. There are characters such as the bickering Humbug, the aptly-named Spelling Bee (who reflexively spells out commonly-used words), and the marvelously tongue-twisting Weatherman, whose splendid spoonerisms would put Gilbert and Sullivan to shame. Things in Dictionopolis happen for no particular reason, its denizens act with no point in mind, and in general things make absolutely no sense. Even the poor king is constantly embroiled in conflicts with himself, over, of course, nothing at all. All this has come to pass because the princesses, Rhyme and Reason, have gone missing. It is thus that Milo sets off on his search-and-rescue mission. To say much more would be to spoil the book's ineffable magic, so whether you're getting this book for your ten-year-old or for yourself (and there is no shame in the latter!), it's a must-have for your bookshelf.
The wordplay in this book approaches Carollian proportions in parts. The descriptions of the demons near the end (including such monstrosities as the Horrible Hopping Hindsight, a "most unpleasant fellow whose eyes were in the rear and whose rear was out in front... he invariably leapt before he looked and never cared where he was going as long as he knew why he shouldn't have gone to where he'd been") are wonderfully clever and illustrate the worse sides of human nature very well. Other characters - Alec Bings (he sees through things); the fat/thin/tiny/giant man, Dr. Dischord and the Awful DYNNE; Chroma the color conductor; the Spelling Bee; and the .58 of a boy (he's one of the 2.58 children the average family has) are all so well done that one finds oneself reading their parts over and over again with a grin on one's face.
Though the allegory becomes too simple as one grows older, it should be returned to over and over again just to see if you missed anything the last time around. It was only recently that I noticed the wonderful line "Is everybody who lives in Ignorance as bad as you?"
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I don't know what the previous reviewer's demands are when reading a novel, but mine are these: the story must create its world - whatever and wherever that world might be - and make me BELIEVE it. If the novelist cannot create that world in my mind, and convince me of its truths, they've wasted my time (style doesn't matter - it can be clean and spare like Orwell or verbose like Dickens, because any style can work in the hands of someone who knows how to use it). Many novels fail this test, but Bleak House is not one of them.
Bleak House succeeds in creating a wonderfully dark and complex spider web of a world. On the surface it's unfamiliar: Victorian London and the court of Chancery - obviously no one alive today knows that world first hand. And yet as you read it you know it to be real: the deviousness, the longing, the secrets, the bureaucracy, the overblown egos, the unfairness of it all. Wait a minute... could that be because all those things still exist today?
But it's not all doom and gloom. It also has Dickens's many shades of humor: silliness, word play, comic dialogue, preposterous characters with mocking names, and of course a constant satirical edge. It also has anger and passion and tenderness.
I will grant one thing: if you don't love reading enough to get into the flow of Dickens's sentences, you'll probably feel like the previous reviewer that "...it goes on and on, in interminable detail and description...". It's a different dance rhythm folks, but well worth getting used to. If you have to, work your way up to it. Don't start with a biggie like Bleak House, start with one of his wonderful short pieces such as A Christmas Carol.
Dickens was a gifted storyteller and Bleak House is his masterpiece. If you love to dive into a book, read and enjoy this gem!
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I have read reviews here and there that claim this book is written at a "young adult" level. Not so. This is a complex story that only seems to be easily told because the author has mastered the ability to write with utter clarity, and without sacrificing style. As one who reads all day for a living (attorney) I have learned to appreciate authors who can write well. Nordhoff does this--the reader never loses the storyline because it is well told. The novels proceed with the precision of a laser beam but with a poetic, wistful, thoughtful tone that is a delight to read. This book has class.
The story of the trip to Tahiti and the mutiny which takes place early on the return voyage are wonderfully told. The ONLY possible criticism is that this story is not terribly true to the facts of the actual mutiny. The protagonist, Roger Byam, is an imaginary person. By the way, this novel is the source for the first of the Mutiny on the Bounty movies starring Charles Laughton.
The other two novels in the trilogy deal with the voyage by Captain Bligh and those of the crew who remained loyal to him, and the aftermath of the mutiny when the mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island. Both stories are first-rate.
Persons interested in a somewhat more accurate depiction of what happened on the Bounty voyage, as well as a ripping good movie, will want to see "The Bounty" starring Mel Gibson (Fletcher Christian) and Anthony Hopkins (Captain Bligh).
The Bounty Trilogy is a book anyone who enjoys adventure will want to read and own.
This trilogy has it all: adventure, drama, comedy, history, life at sea, love and loss. It's hard to believe this all really happened. I've given this book to two of my friends already, and they both liked it. You'll probably like it, too.
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This movie was worthy of a best picture nod, perhaps not as much as Life Is Beautiful, and should be considered a classic in centuries to come. You would have to be completely dense to not like what this movie stands for--love at first sight.
As for the homosexuality of Shakespeare--did anyone ever personally ask him about his sexual preferance? Even if he was homosexual--who cares--THIS IS A MOVIE!
And a great one at that!
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